Go Fish

In the past, we were told not to eat wild salmon because it was nearly extinct. This year, however, campaigns instructed the opposite, with slogans like “Vote with Your Fork,” to drive up demand for (and thereby save) wild salmon. Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and Greg Higgins of Higgins Restaurant in Portland, Oregon, led the fight to save the Klamath, Snake, and Columbia rivers’ populations. They’re backing the proposed Salmon Economic Analysis and Planning Act (SEAPA), which would produce reams of new data about the fish and its habitat, thereby laying the groundwork for future campaigns and protective legislation. The fight may have caught fire in 2007, but it will inevitably roll on for years to come—look for conflict between salmon supporters and the operators of grain barges on the Snake River in 2008. —Elizabeth Gillian